Picked up our hire car today and headed out of Cairns to Palm Cove. Gorgeous long sandy beach. First one we’ve seen since we got here. It’s reputed to have more spas than anywhere else tho I didn’t really see any.

First call was to meet someone neil met at his conference who works at the James Cook university so spent an hour there. It was mid term but hardly anyone about. Modern campus looked a bit like a new high school.

Had lunch in Palm Cove and then headed for the skyrail which is a massively long cable car with little 6 person gondolers hanging from it that climbs up over the rain forest for 7km or something to deposit you at Karunda a fairly naff little tourist spot full of tat shops, a poison museum an Irish pub ( couldnt find a Linnekers tho) and a butterfly house which we spent a jolly 30 minutes in for £12 each! Fab views of the trees, the mountains, the ocean and a pair of naked pensioners jumping in a rock pool. Had to get my big lense on just to confirm they were naked….

Fri night we went out with Mark and Marilyn who we’ll be seeing in melbourne. We looked for Cairns’ happening gay scene and through a gay Cairns website found a bar called Vibe – a bottle stop (offie) by day an grotty bar by night. Def no homosexualists hanging about, so we all went home to bed. Well it was turned 10.